Vasily Aksyonov

Vasily Aksyonov was a Russian novelist, a leading voice of the 1960s liberal 'thaw' generation whose satirical works led to his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1980; he taught in the United States before returning to Russia. His mother was the Jewish writer Yevgenia Ginzburg, author of the Gulag memoir Into the Whirlwind, giving him documented Jewish ancestry. His major works include The Burn and Generations of Winter.